Moving Israel Forward?

Sharon leaves his right-wing Likud party

Ariel Sharon is nicknamed the Bulldozer. The Israeli Prime Minister showed why last week. He reshaped the political landscape by ditching his right-wing Likud Party--which he helped found in 1973--and forming a new centrist bloc called Kadima (Hebrew for forward). Sharon, who will lead the party into elections in March, said he wants to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian road map for peace, not on "wasting time in political struggles," a swipe at the Likud hawks who have undermined him. His top adviser, Reuven Adler, blamed them, not the Palestinians, for failure to advance the peace process. "The rebels made his work...